We are taking off in the boat for a week or more, I imagine it will still be hot. It is not just my sewing room that is now the sweatshop but the entire townhouse. Record temperatures in Vancouver are predicted for another week. I may have to consider an air conditioner next year.
The coat is still not cut out, which is a good thing as I thought of something else last night, I did not reverse the facings.
The tank top isn’t going to be the best fitting sweater in the world, unless blocking can create a miracle.
I love wear my new beads from the last post.
We took our guests up to Whistler, new road will be great not quite finished yet, we had a lovely lunch at the golf course in Squamish, stopped at Brandywine falls, I got some sort of stinger in my foot, which no one could remove. It stung like crazy so I spent the hour in Whistler in a medical clinic while the rest walked around in the heat. My foot is better now.
The camera gave up completely, so bought a new one this week.

My sewing studio upstairs feels like a sweatshop, it just holds the heat from the courtyard, so I have shut the shutters and hope it doesn’t get any warmer. The other reason it seems like a sweatshop is that it seems never ending because I keep working on the same project.
I have returned to the great coat sewalong from last year. The fabric has been laying out on my cutting table for 2 weeks now with no visible progress. I think I have now made a bit of progress, at least there is hope. I had laid out the pattern and was thread tracing the seam lines last September, when we put the house on the market and put my sewing in storage. I hated wearing my tight decades old coat last year and the goal is to wear it this year. So I checked it all out a couple of weeks ago and remembered that I’d need facings, that the coat needed lengthening by about 6 inches. So I measured and basted and there was no room for the collar pieces. So shortened everything by 2 inches and still not enough room. Thought about giving up several times. Last night, I decided to start over and laid out the pieces again, I think it will fit. So now 3 pieces have been thread traced and I am keeping crossing my fingers. I would really like to get it cut out by Monday as company comes on Tuesday.

I made a bracelet and necklace from the greenish beads that I picked up in Rome, it took quite a while to figure out what to put with them, I picked up the pendant at an Artist’s market on Thetis Island when we were sailing.

The cardinal direction for Project spectrum 4 is South for July and August, the colour is red. So I bought some sock yarn which had a red in it and then found I didn’t care for the pink and brown that were also in the mix.The yarn is DG Confetti 100 Stretch 25.02. I was on the boat at the time, so I was determined to continue, even though I had decided that I was not a red person. I liked knitting with the yarn and they went rather quickly. I entertained the thought of over dyeing them with another warmed red, so one day the dyes will come out of the basement storage and I’ll try a couple of lengths of yarn and see what shade of dyes to consider.

The knitted Tank has stalled at the bust increases on the front, I tried a short row increase and didn’t like the holes that I had created, it just wasn’t attractive. I unripped what I had done. So when I returned home after sailing I was on the computer looking at Knitting Daily for some answers. I was still mulling it about and last night I looked up Knitty for their take on the subject, certainly more math is involved but I think I now have a solution.

I don’t have any pictures yet, the camera is still on the boat. The weather was variable wind, rain, sun, cold, hot. We stayed an extra night in Naniamo because of the wind and rain, walked around the town with 2 jackets on each. When we went through Dodd’s narrows, the current is up around 9 knots, so everyone waits for slack water and it was really busy with about 25 vessels plus a tug with a barge, every one was calling up on the radio with security messages.

We went to the Beneteau rendevous, over 60 boats. One man had just circumnavigated the globe, in a 30 foot boat. There was lots of fun and games and also some fund raising. Around $500 for children’s hospital and $600 for the Disabled sailors association. I attended a cooking demonstration with raised money for the disabled sailors, about 18 receipes to taste and I learned lots about good utensils and products to take on a boat. I didn’t go to the cooking lesson on the last rendevous but will certainly like to attend another one someday.

We spent 2 days in Ganges, on Salt Spring Island and I splurged at the Stitches Quilt store.The new location is wonderful. The last night was Canada day, so we had a great spot on the dock to watch the fireworks, listen to the anthem and the song which was made popular during Expo ’86, Our Home Our Canada. It was a great evening with everyone cheering and the boats with all the horns honking.

After all the years of sailing, I saw my first orca in the wild. It’s so joyous to seem them.

Here we are tied up to a mooring bouy.

The last day coming home, was long, bumpy with good sized troughs and I could only cope with that with my eyes shut. My head was just throbbing and needed ice on return home. Hubby went out the next day for another rendevous. I was glad for some downtime and stayed home.